THE  PROBLEMS  OE  VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE  IN 

THE  SOUTH 


BY 

DAVID  SPENCE  HILL 


[Reprinted  from,  School  and  Society,  Vol.  I.,  No.  8,  Pages  257-263,  February  20,  1915 ] 


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[Reprinted  from  School  and  Society,  Vol.  I.,  No.  8,  Pages  257-263,  February  20,  1915] 


THE  PROBLEMS  OF  VOCATIONAL  GUIDANCE  IN  THE  SOUTH 


Whether  we  discuss  vocational  guidance 
the  north  or  the  south,  in  the  east  or  the 
west,  there  lies  at  bottom  the  matter  of 
human  labor,  drudgery  and  work.  To  at- 
tack the  problems  of  vocational  guidance 
in  the  south  demands  consideration,  first  of 
all,  of  the  essential  facts  regarding  human 
capacity  for  work  and  vocation.  We  may 
then  inquire  into  what  is  being  done  in  the 
effort  to  organize  the  vocational  guidance 
of  youth,  and,  lastly,  we  shall  propose  sev- 
eral topics  for  emphasis  with  regard  to  the 
extension  of  organized  vocational  guidance 
in  the  south. 

Work  to-day  is  distinguished  from  mere 
drudgery  and  toil.  Drudgery  is  more  fa- 
miliar than  work  to  millions  of  mankind 
because  of  their  lack  of  opportunity,  or 
lack  of  physical  well-being,  or  because  of 
mental  arrest,  or  on  account  of  maladjust- 
ment of  individual  and  of  activity.  In- 
gredients of  drudgery  are  too  long  hours, 
uninteresting  tasks,  unpleasant  supervi- 
sion. Work,  at  its  best  in  human  life,  is 
something  more  than  the  mechanical  con- 
version of  energy  such  as  motion  of  wheels 
into  heat  or  light  or  electricity.  Work 
means  effort,  conscious  movement  directed 
toward  a remote  goal.  It  is  not  mere  pain- 
ful movement  nor  is  it  an  incessant  insect- 
like being-busy  that  accomplishes  little. 
Work  at  its  best  is  not  only  purposeful  ac- 
tivity directed  to  a future  end,  it  is  also 
activity  tinctured  with  the  spirit  of  play, 
and  perhaps  in  the  course  of  evolution  both 
the  physical  and  mental  bases  of  work  and 
play  have  a common  development,  as,  for 


example,  in  the  inborn  tendency  to  con- 
structiveness. This  instinct  of  construc- 
tiveness has  later  developments  both  in  the 
make-believe  creations  of  childish  hands 
and  also  in  the  production  of  things  of 
value — houses,  bridges,  ships,  which  are 
largely  too  the  product  of  economic  pres- 
sure. The  rich  results  of  the  work  of  the 
creative  artist,  or  inventor,  or  statesman 
come  through  prodigious  activities,  and  in 
these  play  and  work  have  blended. 

Experimental,  genetic,  pedagogical  and 
social  studies  of  work,  physical  and  mental, 
recently  have  made  clearer  the  meanings 
and  significance  of  drudgery,  toil,  fatigue 
and  of  play.  We  know  that  work,  defined 
as  conscious  effort  toward  a future  reward, 
has  uniformities  in  process,  and  a knowl- 
edge of  these  uniformities  gives  us  control, 
a result  that  is  the  ultimate  end  of  many 
sciences.  In  efficient  work  there  is  always 
mental  concentration,  pleasurable  interest, 
organization  of  details,  elimination  of  non- 
essential  movements.  Work,  with  sufficient 
repetition  and  with  sufficient  intensity, 
tends  to  become  more  accurate,  more 
speedy,  less  conscious,  thus  with  every 
achievement  equipping  the  organism  for 
more  and  better  work.  The  curve  of  prog- 
ress in  work  has  been  plotted,  the  plateau 
of  temporary  halting — that  abyss  of  failure 
to  the  untrained  worker— the  effects,  gen- 
eralized or  specialized,  of  practise  have 
been  tabulated,  the  relative  advantages  of 
short  and  long  periods  at  work,  of  different 
distributions  of  rest  and  activity — finally, 
the  physical  and  mental  factors  and  effects 


lo  4i  S M 


2 


SCHOOL  AND  SOCIETY 


of  excessive  fatigue — all  these  topics  sug- 
gest phases  of  work  under  systematic  in- 
vestigation to-day,  even  if  not  yet  com- 
pf^tely  understood. 

Vocation  should  mean  life-work  and 
fio^hmg  less.  Life-work  ideally  is  the  ac- 
tual adjustment  of  the  individual  through 
education  meeting  opportunity.  They  who 
undertake  that  new  aspect  of  conscious  evo- 
lution— organized  vocational  guidance — 
therefore  are  superficial  in  method  if  they 
do  not  understandingly  unravel  the  tangle 
of  interdependent  factors  that  determines 
the  career  of  boys  and  girls.  Opportunity 
must  be  known,  sifted,  exhibited;  this 
means  a knowledge  of  economic  and  social 
conditions,  of  the  status  of  local  industries, 
commerce,  trades,  professions,  occupations. 
The  individual  must  be  known;  this  does  not 
imply  a mere  knowledge  of  that  non-exist- 
ent phantom  the  “average  boy  or  girl”  por- 
trayed in  text-books  on  psychology  and 
physiology ; it  is  a demand  that  we  be  able 
to  know  the  individual  by  a method  more 
sure  than  casual  observation,  phrenological 
chicanery  or  physiognomic  delusion.  In 
the  study  of  individuals  will  be  encountered 
also  the  complex  factor  of  personal  choice 
— an  inevitable  presence  in  all  fitting  of 
hiunan  beings  into  appropriate  grooves  or 
grooves  to  fit  human  beings. 

These  references  to  the  nature  and  com- 
plexity of  work  and  vocation  considered  as 
human  capacities  of  superlative  value  pre- 
pare us  to  consider  some  specific  observa- 
tions that  bear  directly  upon  the  problem 
of  vocational  guidance  in  the  south.  First, 
what  is  being  done  about  organized  voca- 
tional guidance  in  the  south?  In  order  to 
obtain  the  answer  to  this  question  our 
Division  of  Educational  Research  sent  the 
following  letter  to  the  superintendents  of 
schools  in  southern  cities  and  towns : 

Dear  Sir:  The  problem  of  vocational  guidance 
doubtless  is  an  issue  that  is  becoming  more  urgent 


in  the  educational  work  of  our  southern  cities.  So 
far  as  I know  there  is  no  definite  organization  or 
bureau  for  vocational  guidance  in  any  city  of  the 
south.  In  studying  this  matter,  however,  I am 
taking  the  pains  to  make  inquiry,  and  I am  there- 
fore writing  this  letter  to  the  superintendents  of 
schools  in  the  chief  cities  of  the  south. 

Will  you  kindly  answer  the  following  questions? 

1.  Do  you  know  of  any  definite  effort  under- 
taken by  competent  persons  in  your  city  to  organ- 
ize a bureau  or  department  for  the  vocational 
guidance  of  boys  and  girls?  If  so,  please  send  us 
as  complete  information  as  possible  concerning  the 
history  of  this  organization. 

2.  Please  write  your  opinion  concerning  the 
values,  local  difficulties,  and  probable  outcome  of 
the  vocational-guidance  movement  in  your  city,  if 
such  a movement  is  on  foot.  What  will  be  the 
best  kind  of  provision  of  this  kind  for  the  south? 

Your  kind  attention  and  cooperation  will  be  ap- 
preciated. 

I am 

Sincerely  yours, 

David  Spence  Hill, 

Director 

This  letter  was  mailed  to  forty-one  super- 
intendents in  these  cities  of  fourteen  states : 
Alabama:  Birmingham,  Mobile.  Arkansas: 
Little  Rock.  Florida:  Jacksonville,  Pensa- 
cola, Tampa.  Georgia:  Atlanta,  Columbus, 
Macon,  Savannah.  Kentucky:  Covington, 
Lexington,  Louisville,  Paducah.  Louisiana: 
Baton  Rouge,  Shreveport.  Maryland:  Bal- 
timore. Mississippi:  Jackson,  Meridian, 
Vicksburg.  North  Carolina:  Charlotte, 
Raleigh,  Wilmington.  Oklahoma:  Okla- 
homa City.  South  Carolina:  Charleston, 
Columbia,  Greenville,  Spartanburg.  Ten- 
nessee: Chattanooga,  Memphis,  Nashville. 
Texas:  Austin,  Dallas,  Fort  Worth,  Hous- 
ton, San  Antonio.  Virginia:  Lynchburg, 
Norfolk,  Portsmouth,  Richmond,  Roanoke. 

So  far  as  revealing  any  considerable  in- 
terest in  the  movement  for  organized  voca- 
tional guidance,  the  results  of  this  ques- 
tionnaire are  almost  negative.  Of  the 
forty-one  superintendents  addressed  replies 
were  received  from  fifteen,  distributed 
in:  Richmond,  Lynchburg  and  Norfolk, 


SCHOOL  AND  SOCIETY 


3 


Va. ; Charleston,  S.  C. ; Raleigh,  N.  C. ; 
Baltimore,  Md. ; Mobile  and  Montgomery, 
Ala. ; Meridian,  Miss. ; Columbus,  Ga. ; 
Columbus,  S.  C. ; Birmingham,  Ala. ; Little 
Rock,  Ark. ; Covington,  Ky. ; Houston, 
Texas — not  including  New  Orleans,  La. 

Of  the  fifteen  replying  twelve  indicated 
that  no  definite  effort  is  being  undertaken 
in  their  respective  cities  to  organize  a bu- 
reau, department  or  division  of  vocational 
guidance.  One  can  not  speak  definitely  of 
those  cities  from  which  no  reply  was  re- 
ceived, but  it  is  not  likely  that  the  move- 
ment has  taken  root  in  any  city  of  the  south 
except  in  two  or  three  instances.  Interest 
in  the  movement  for  organized  vocational 
guidance  or  some  local  study  of  the  prob- 
lem was  indicated  in  Birmingham,  Little 
Rock,  Houston  and  New  Orleans.  In  one 
instance  lack  of  adequate  compulsory  at- 
tendance laws  and  in  another  low  finances 
were  cited  as  obstacles  to  consideration  of 
the  matter. 

Superintendent  Phillips,  of  Birmingham, 
reports  a committee  on  vocational  guidance. 
This  committee  has  been  quite  active  and 
has  accomplished  results  in  securing  infor- 
mation and  data  regarding  local  conditions 
of  employment  and  in  the  directing  of 
young  people  in  the  schools  with  regard  to 
the  selection  of  life  vocations.  “I  regard 
the  work  of  this  committee  as  exceedingly 
valuable,”  writes  the  superintendent,  “not 
simply  in  the  way  of  securing  information 
but  in  the  practical  assistance  it  has  af- 
forded hundreds  of  young  people  whose 
work  in  school,  whose  choice  of  studies  and 
future  life-work  have  been  determined  after 
serious  consideration  and  consultation.” 
Another  important  committee  in  Birming- 
ham is  a committee  on  vocational  education 
representing  the  United  States  Chamber  of 
Commerce.  This  committee  has  held  meet- 
ings in  conjunction  with  the  vocational 
guidance  committee  of  the  public  schools. 


Superintendent  Horn,  of  Houston,  Texas, 
writes : 

I have  always  believed  theoretically  in  the  idea 
of  vocational  guidance,  but  I have  never  felt  quite 
sure  that  the  work  has  been  so  developed,  up  to 
the  present,  as  to  make  it  particularly  valuable. 
In  other  words,  we  have  been  waiting  for  you, 
and  some  other  gentlemen,  to  do  a little  more  ex- 
perimenting before  our  own  city  goes  into  it.  I 
am  interested  in  the  subject,  however,  and  should 
be  glad  to  know  anything  that  may  be  of  value  as 
to  results  obtained. 

Superintendent  R.  C.  Hall,  Little  Rock, 
Arkansas,  writes: 

We  are  studying  the  question  thoroughly  and 
shall  be  ready  to  make  some  recommendations 
later. 

In  New  Orleans,  no  separate  bureau  ex- 
ists for  vocational  guidance.  Definite  pre- 
liminary work  has  been  done,  however,  in 
five  particulars  under  the  auspices  of  the 
public-school  system  and  by  civic  organiza- 
tions. Since  New  Orleans  is  the  largest 
City  of  the  south  a somewhat  detailed  con- 
sideration may  prove  interesting. 

1.  The  Nicholls  Industrial  School  for 
Girls  recently  organized  in  New  Orleans, 
during  its  first  year  undertook,  through  the 
efforts  of  the  principal,  Miss  Rita  Johnson, 
to  inform,  encourage  and  attract  girls  in 
the  grades  who  had  expressed  a desire  to  go 
to  the  vocational  school  or  who  were  about 
to  depart.  This  industrial  school  effected 
this  beginning  by  means  of  (a)  form  letters, 
(b)  a special  committee  to  give  information 
and  advice,  and  (c)  by  bringing  groups  of 
girls  to  observe  the  work  of  the  vocational 
school. 

2.  In  New  Orleans  the  Young  Women’s 
Christian  Association  has  recently  pub- 
lished a booklet  containing  considerable  in- 
formation about  certain  occupations  of  wo- 
men in  New  Orleans — a book  intended  to 
help  young  women  to  suitable  occupations. 

3.  The  Consumers’  League  also  has  gath- 
ered data  concerning  the  pay-rolls,  hours  of 


4 


SCHOOL  AND  SOCIETY 


labor,  etc.,  of  girls  and  women  in  New  Or- 
leans which  it  is  intended  to  publish  for 
local  nse. 

4.  Within  the  Division  of  Educational 
Research,  Public  Schools,  for  two  years  a 
system  of  systematic  study  of  exceptional 
children  has  been  carried  on  successfully. 
This  cooperative  method  of  studying  chil- 
dren at  the  request  of  parents  has  been  ac- 
complished through  the  systematic  coopera- 
tion of  teacher,  psychologist,  physician  and 
social  worker.  Data  obtained  from  these 
four  sources  are  collected  for  each  child 
studied.  So  far  this  laboratory  method  has 
been  applied  chiefly  to  exceptional  children 
in  an  effort  to  determine  their  capacity  for 
education  and  possible  aptitudes  for  voca- 
tions. 

5.  Finally,  in  New  Orleans  an  organ- 
ized effort  has  been  made  recently  by 
Superintendent  Gwinn  cooperating  with 
the  Division  of  Educational  Research,  to  ob- 
tain information  and  to  enlist  the  coopera- 
tion of  parents  of  more  than  ten  thousand 
children  thirteen  years  of  age  and  over. 
The  forms  used  for  this  purpose  besides 
space  for  the  conventional  data  regarding 
age,  grade,  etc.,  gain  from  thousands  of 
parents  a consideration  of  such  questions 
as : occupation,  if  any,  in  view  for  the  boy 
or  girl;  what  the  boy  or  girl  wants  to  do  or 
be;  training,  if  any,  already  received  for  the 
occupation ; intention  of  parent  to  send  boy 
or  girl  to  high  school,  college,  industrial 
school,  normal  school,  etc.  There  are  four 
forms,  two  for  the  elementary  schools  and 
two  for  the  high  schools.  The  data  thus  ob- 
tained are  to  be  used  not  only  for  analysis 
and  comparisons,  but  also  in  the  case  of 
each  school,  as  the  basis  of  conferences,  talks 
on  vocation  by  the  superintendents  and 
selected  speakers  from  various  occupations. 

In  addition  to  this  a renewed  effort  is  be- 
ing made  to  study  the  conditions  involving 
each  and  every  withdrawal  from  school  for 


any  cause.  To  this  latter  end,  Miss  Mary 
Railey,  a trained  social  investigator,  has 
been  employed  within  the  Division  of  Edu- 
cational Research.  For  the  high  schools 
personal  visitations  are  being  made  to 
homes  to  secure  data  concerning  each  indi- 
vidual eliminated.  For  the  elementary 
schools  a special  questionnaire  is  being  used. 

All  these  efforts,  it  is  hoped,  will  be  co- 
ordinated usefully  with  the  results  of  the 
vocational  survey  now  being  made  in  New 
Orleans  for  the  Isaac  Delgado  Central 
Trades  School  for  the  establishment  of 
which  about  one  million  dollars  are  avail- 
able. Included  in  the  final  report  of  this 
survey  will  be  data  concerning  all  of  the 
chief  occupations  open  to  boys  in  New 
Orleans.  This  phase  of  the  report  will 
constitute  a basis  for  informational  work 
in  future  vocational  guidance. 

We  may  now  venture  to  state  candidly 
some  groups  of  important  facts  relevant 
to  the  inauguration  of  any  complete  organi- 
zations for  vocational  guidance  of  youth  in 
the  south — whether  such  organizations  are 
maintained  by  the  state,  the  city,  the  school 
board  or  by  private  philanthropy.  We 
refer  to  the  following  matters : 

First:  Special  physical,  social  and  eco- 
nomic conditions  found  in  most  of  the 
southern  states  can  not  be  safely  ignored 
by  constructive  social  and  educational 
ivorlcers.  We  refer  to  the  semi-tropical 
climate,  the  varied  topography  and  also  to 
the  historical  perspective,  the  population, 
the  presence  of  millions  of  the  negro  race, 
the  predominating  occupational  tendencies, 
etc. 

In  the  south  objective  opportunity  is 
complicated  by  unique  business  and  social 
conditions.  New  England,  the  West  Coast, 
of  course,  also  present  unique  conditions, 
but  that  large  expanse  of  country  called 
the  south  presents  certain  obvious  char- 
acteristics that  are  singularly  common  to 


SCHOOL  AND  SOCIETY 


5 


the  vast  majority  of  its  area  and  citizen- 
ship. Each  community,  however,  will 
always  have  its  special  economic  and  social 
problems,  and  these  demand  provision  for 
local  investigations.  For  example,  it  has 
not  been  much  of  a problem  with  us  to 
assimilate  great  numbers  of  immigrants. 
According  to  the  1914  edition  of  the  United 
States  Census  (Abstract,  p.  89)  in  Missis- 
sippi, Virginia,  Louisiana,  Arkansas  and 
Texas,  North  and  South  Carolina,  Ten- 
nessee, Georgia  and  Alabama  the  numbers 
of  the  white  population  who  are  of  Amer- 
ican parentage  range  from  81  to  99  per 
cent.  Massachusetts  exhibits  33  per  cent, 
of  native  American  parentage,  New  York 
36  per  cent.,  Pennsylvania  56.5  per  cent., 
Illinois  47  per  cent.,  Oregon  64  per  cent., 
California  49  per  cent.  These  contrasts 
alone  indicate  that,  first  of  all,  we  have  in 
the  south  to  deal  with  a predominating 
race  in  point  of  time  longer  imbued  with 
American  ideals  and  habits  than  the  people 
of  most  of  the  other  sections  of  the  country. 
Therefore  the  south  may  be  expected  to 
exhibit  a momentum  which  will  prevent 
rapid  innovations  in  education  or  vocation, 
whether  imported  from  Europe  or  else- 
where. 

Immigration  of  the  white  races  to  the 
south  has  been  slow.  Moreover,  there  are 
present  in  the  south  87  per  cent,  of  all  the 
negroes  in  the  United  States,  millions  of 
negroes  who  constitute  a large  fraction  of 
the  local  populations,  whose  bringing  here 
was  clouded  with  injustice  and  disaster. 
The  presence  of  these  negroes,  aside  from 
the  frequent  agitations  aroused  by  a minor- 
ity of  white  persons  both  in  the  north  and 
the  south,  has  always  been  and  remains  to- 
day a source  of  confusion,  a factor  in  mor- 
bidity and  mortality  and  of  pedagogical  and 
social  difficulty.  That  state,  city  or  town 
of  white  population  which  knows  this  race 
question  as  viewed  only  by  observing  the 


life  of  a small  group  of  negroes  does  not 
comprehend  the  magnitude  of  the  neces- 
sary problem  weighing  daily  upon  the 
white  and  colored  people  of  the  south.  It 
is  a source  of  felicitation  to  both  the  white 
and  the  negro  races,  in  the  south  in  partic- 
ular, that  relatively  little  of  disorder,  of 
friction,  that  so  much  of  mutual  coopera- 
tion and  helpfulness,  exist  when  every  day 
so  many  millions  of  negroes  are  crossing 
and  re-crossing  the  path  of  the  ascendant 
white  race.  The  successful  struggle  of  the 
negroes  in  winning  place  in  the  vocations 
of  life,  in  gaining  financial  independence 
and  improving  sanitation— all  against  diffi- 
culties and  in  many  instances  under 
pathetic  conditions,  has  the  approval,  the 
sympathy  and  the  assistance  of  the  white 
race  of  the  south.  Nevertheless,  the  ques- 
tions of  vocational  opportunities,  guidance 
and  choice  are  deeply  complicated  by  the 
presence  of  this  race.  In  the  south,  train- 
ing for  vocation,  providing  opportunities 
for  vocation,  guiding  the  young  away  from 
incompetence,  shiftlessness,  unhealthful, 
vicious  and  hopeless  occupations,  into  effi- 
ciency, energy,  social  service  and  individual 
realization,  all  these  present  two  nearly 
separate  groups  of  problems.  This  twofold 
problem  makes  difficult,  although  by  no 
means  renders  hopeless,  the  situation  in 
the  south. 

In  the  cities  of  the  south  the  industries 
of  manufacture  and  transportation  now 
grow.  Professional  service,  medicine,  law, 
the  ministry,  teaching,  engineering,  also 
invite  with  large  opportunity  and  higher 
standards.  But  the  south  so  far  is  pre- 
dominantly an  agricultural  region  with 
here  and  there  large  mining  activities  and 
no  inconsiderable  fisheries.  The  cultiva- 
tion of  cotton,  of  sugar  cane,  the  lumber 
industry,  the  extraction  of  coal,  iron,  salt, 
sulphur  and  crude  oil,  the  fisheries  of 
Louisiana,  Florida,  Alabama,  besides  the 
growth  of  cereals  and  food  products,  occupy 


6 


SCHOOL  AND  SOCIETY 


the  majority  of  our  population,  white  and 
black.  Most  of  the  workers  in  these  occu- 
pations need  a general  education,  knowl- 
edge and  habituation  of  hygiene  more  than 
specialized  training  for  a trade  or  guidance 
thereto.  Newcomers  of  brain  and  enter- 
prise as  leaders  are  helping  our  leaders  to 
resuscitate  and  to  establish  industries,  and 
these  furnish  varied  and  enlarging  oppor- 
tunities in  the  manufacturing  and  mechan- 
ical pursuits  of  our  cities. 

In  the  night  schools  of  New  Orleans  the 
1,500  boys  and  young  men  represent  two 
hundred  occupations,  and  it  is  observed  that 
here,  as  elsewhere,  there  is  a tendency  to 
fall  into  commercial  occupations,  as  mes- 
senger and  office  boys,  clerks,  etc.,  and  to 
miss  more  independent  and  developmental 
vocations  in  the  mechanical  trades.  This 
tendency  toward  the  “ white-sliirt-and-clean- 
hands  jobs”  is  disastrous  when  it  is  incul- 
cated in  the  negro  in  his  present  stage  of 
restricted  opportunity,  and  is  also  un- 
wholesome to  thousands  of  white  youth 
for  both  individual  and  social  reasons. 
The  tendency  in  our  cities  for  boys  not  to 
enter  mechanical,  manufacturing  or  build- 
ing trades  is  favored  by  four  factors: 

A.  The  absence  of  adequate  apprentice- 
ship and  the  lack  of  good  industrial  and 
trades  schools.  B.  The  predominance  of 
unskilled  labor  in  newly  acquired  factories, 
which  is  usually  of  low  or  middle-grade 
machine  operatives.  These  machine  proc- 
esses are  utilizing  young  girls  as  operatives 
more  and  more,  offer  inadequate  remunera- 
tion to  men  and  are  consequently  shunned 
by  boys  and  men  of  capacity  in  favor  of 
the  clerkship.  C.  The  stable  nature  of  the 
population,  so  far  as  boys  are  influenced 
by  the  occupations  of  fathers,  is  a factor  in 
leading  the  city  boy  into  few  modern  occu- 
pations requiring  new  skill  and  knowledge. 
Of  the  children  of  New  Orleans  59  per  cent, 
of  the  fathers  of  thirteen-year-old  boys  and 


86  per  cent,  of  the  boys  themselves  are 
living  in  the  city  of  their  birth.  D.  The 
indirect  influence  of  the  old-type  elemen- 
tary school,  academy  and  high  school  and 
college  which  in  the  south  perhaps  more 
than  in  the  north  remains  under  the  control 
of  teachers  of  the  classical  wing  in  educa- 
tion. 

Secondly  : Vocational  guidance  of  a very 
real  kind  has  long  been  in  operation  in  the 
south,  and  the  best  elements  of  this  guid- 
ance must  be  conserved.  It  is  the  changing 
industrial  and  occupational  condition  and 
growth  of  population  that  demands  a new 
organization.  The  genius  of  the  south  has 
always  been  for  home-making.  Apartment, 
hotel  and  tenement-house  life  are  innova- 
tions. The  plantation  home,  the  cabin  and 
plot  of  gi’ound  of  the  slave,  the  city  man- 
sion and  the  humble  cottage,  are  all  symbols 
of  home  life.  Home,  neighborhood,  church 
and  school  associations  have  been  and  are 
potent  factors  in  guiding  the  choice  and 
opening  opportunity  for  youth  in  the  south. 
When  such  influences  are  intelligent  and 
able  to  make  mental  adjustment  with  the 
times,  they  embody  the  strongest  types  of 
personal  appeal  in  vocational  guidance. 
This  note  is  perhaps  sounded  by  Superin- 
tendent Chandler,  of  Richmond,  who  writes : 

I do  not  believe  in  the  vocational  guidance 
movement  other  than  as  it  works  itself  out  in  the 
schools  for  definite  work  and  the  schools  working 
to  place  these  pupils. 

And  again  by  Superintendent  Dobie,  of 
Norfolk : 

When  pupils  are  graduated  from  the  seventh 
grade  of  our  elementary  schools  and  are  prepared 
to  enter  the  high  schools  we  offer  them  some  five 
courses  and  endeavor  to  advise,  direct  or  assist 
them  in  making  a choice  suitable  to  their  needs 
as  to  the  course  of  study  in  the  high  school,  learn- 
ing as  far  as  we  can  what  they  propose  to  do  in 
life,  and  trying  to  prepare  them,  in  this  way, 
for  it. 

With  the  recognition  of  the  necessity  of 
some  kind  of  definite  efforts  at  vocational 


SCHOOL  AND  SOCIETY 


7 


guidance  throughout  the  country  certain 
dangers  are  apparent  in  the  movement. 
In  the  first  place  there  are  quacks  not  re- 
mote in  principles  and  practise  from 
phrenologists,  astrologers  and  fortune 
tellers.  More  reliable,  but  not  good  leaders, 
are  the  illuminists  who,  really  understand- 
ing by  investigation  something  of  the  prob- 
lems and  methods  of  good,  organized  guid- 
ance, nevertheless  almost  unconsciously 
come  to  pose  as  self-authorized  authorities, 
speaking  ex  cathedra.  Then  there  are  the 
job-seekers,  who,  collecting  bundles  of  ques- 
tionnaires, card  indices  and  notes  at  six- 
weeks  summer  schools,  return  to  the  grade 
or  high-school  work  of  the  local  community, 
presently  to  appear  as  “lecturers”  and 
even  “specialists”  and  prospective  direct- 
ors and  counselors  for  a local  bureau. 

It  is  indeed  a difficult  matter  either  for 
an  individual  or  an  organization  to  guide 
human  beings  successfully  into  their  life 
work,  so  manifold  and  elusive  are  indi- 
vidual differences,  so  spotted  with  shoals 
are  economic  opportunities,  so  inadequate 
our  expensive,  slow-moving  educational  ma- 


chine— and  so  ignorant  are  we  of  human 
nature.  It  is  a delusion  to  believe  because 
a proposition  seems  logical  that  the  con- 
clusion will  prove  satisfactory  when  ap- 
plied to  the  individual  human  organism. 
It  is  a question  whether  theoretical,  defec- 
tive vocational  guidance  is  harmful  or 
worse  than  no  guidance  at  all.  On  the 
other  hand,  our  leaders  and  our  efficient 
workers,  many  of  them,  have  found  their 
life  work  through  the  school  of  unchosen 
experience,  that  costliest  of  schools  in 
which  the  survivors  are  a handful  as  com- 
pared with  the  multitudes  who  have  suc- 
cumbed to  its  curriculum.  The  waste  of 
potential  human  productiveness,  the  pres- 
ence of  poverty,  the  absence  of  skill  and 
knowledge  in  industry,  the  pretense  in  the 
professions,  the  misfits,  and  the  wreckage 
of  hopes,  ambitions  and  love  itself — some  of 
these  of  late  may  be  charged  to  the  lack  of 
organized  vocational  guidance,  a necessity 
evoked  by  the  complexity  of  our  present 
civilization.  David  Spence  Hill 

Division  or  Educational  Research, 

Public  Schools, 

:New  Orleans,  La. 


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